Stages Of Life In My Antonia

1324 Words6 Pages
In the past, critics have demoralized and brutalized every writer they could get their pen on. This is seen from criticisms of Henry Adams to William Butler Yeats. These critics critique everything about the writer and his/her works. For instance, many critics criticize Willa Cather's novel, My Antonia. Their criticisms lie on the basis that My Antonia is based on cyclical themes with no structure holding each of My Antonia's books. In other words, as a collection of five different accounts remembered by the main character, Jim Burden, My Antonia is characterized by a loose plot structure, yet common themes are expressed through the cyclical nature, including the cycle of the seasons and the stages of life. According to James E. Miller Jr.'s " My Antonia; A Frontier Drama of Time," Willa Cather's novel, My Antonia, is "defective in structure" (Bloom 51). Its structure is basically based on Cather’s point of view. Her point of view tells the story of the main character, Jim Burden, who remembers specific moments in an abstract pattern in his life about his Antonia. This is so because the collection of books that make up the novel, My Antonia, is about Willa Cather; the narrator's idea of what and to what point Jim Burden remembers. Miller also states that the novel "lacks focus and abounds in irrelevancies" (Wells 1). This is due to the fact that Cather didn't provide a consistent character portrayal throughout her novel. Another critic, Kim Wells, asserts Miller's opinion on the novel because as he states the novel has many "variations from a theme" (Wells 1). For instance the section about the hired girls and also the part when Peter and Pavel, two lonesome Russian Settlers, tell Jim and Antonia a tragic tale that horrifies and fascinates the children. (1. THIS IS A SENTENCE FRAGMENT. 2. INSTEAD OF PARAPHRASING, USE A DIRECT QUOTE.) This
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